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Double-Sided

glTF property: material.doubleSided

Property Details
Shader attribute gltfDoubleSided (Extra Attributes)
Attribute type Boolean
Auto-created Yes — added to every material on first export
Default Off (disabled)

The doubleSided flag in glTF controls whether backfaces of a surface are rendered. When disabled (the default), backfaces are culled and only the front face is visible. When enabled, both sides are rendered regardless of normal orientation.

Enabling double-sided mode

gltfDoubleSided is a plugin-managed custom attribute that is created automatically on the material node during the first export. It appears in the Extra Attributes section of the Attribute Editor and applies to the material as a whole — it is not tied to any individual texture or shader input.

Toggle glTF Double Sided to On in the Extra Attributes section to mark the material as double-sided in the exported file.

Note

This is a material-level toggle. Enabling it affects every mesh that uses the material, regardless of how many meshes share it.

Automatic detection fallback

When gltfDoubleSided is left at its default value (Off), the exporter falls back to inspecting Maya's own backface culling setting on each mesh shape that uses the material:

Maya backface culling Exported doubleSided
Off (both sides visible) true
On (backfaces culled) false

Using the gltfDoubleSided attribute overrides this automatic detection. This gives you explicit, predictable control when the per-shape Maya setting does not match your export intent — for example, when a material is shared across shapes with conflicting culling settings.

When to enable

Scenario Recommended setting
Flat planes (leaves, cards, cloth) that must be visible from both sides On
Closed meshes where backfaces are never seen Off (default)
Shared material with mixed per-shape culling that should always export as double-sided On
Shared material with mixed per-shape culling that should always export as single-sided Off

What is exported

When gltfDoubleSided is On, the exporter writes "doubleSided": true into the material object in the glTF JSON. When it is Off, doubleSided is omitted (glTF default is false).

{
  "materials": [
    {
      "name": "Leaf_Mat",
      "doubleSided": true,
      "pbrMetallicRoughness": { ... }
    }
  ]
}

Warning

Enabling doubleSided can increase rendering cost in real-time runtimes because the GPU must shade both faces. Only enable it where visually required.